The two+ month old paper launch of Nvidia's Nforce 2 chipset will finally be arriving in product form at tier-one board makers' doorsteps as early as October 1. A story on DigiTimes indicates that the problems Nvidia had with DDR400 and AGP8X standard tests have been solved, and the systems should be available in the very near future. Nforce 2 is arriving a little late to help save the ailing AMD position (which could've really benefited from an Nforce 2 introduction back in July/August). Nevertheless, it now seems a welcomed beacon of hope for the little green chip company. Nforce 2 supports an on-board HyperTransport bus protocol, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), ATA/133/100/66, has DDR400 memory support (one of the few that support it officially), and enough graphics potential to warrant the enormous throughput delivered by AGP8X. Nforce 2 works nicely with AMD-based processors. The October arrival should see products a month or so after. Read more at DigiTimes.Rob's Note: The direct benefit of DDR400 support for the Athlon with 266MHz system bus is probably effectively zero, although the other features are nice. This chipset may be more interesting when AMD releases a core with 333MHz system bus, and even then you should really only need well-tuned DDR333 to maximize throughput.

USER COMMENTS 57 comment(s)

Will we see?(2:23pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)This reminds me of the same sort of thing touted for the first Nforce, Its niced and all but there are draw backs to it, Its plain sad that the system can support such a level of RAM and wast it. - by Eric

Incorrect Rob note:(2:34pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)The onchip graphics will likely benefit greatly from DDR400, to squeeze every bit of performance out of that bottleneck! - by Sean

Or though the nForce1 was late to the party it was a real party animal(2:40pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)The nForce 2 should pickup where its older brother left off. I can't wait to get my hands on one. - by NoM$KissAss

Why DDR400?(3:08pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)The DDR400 support seems paradoxical to me. The only thing that would benefit from it (unless AMD releases Athlons with a 400MHz bus) is the on-board graphics. Yet only system integrators would really use this, and they'd probably use DDR266 (maybe DDR333). It practically screams “marketing gimmick”… - by Big Fred

First DDR400 board form VIA, ASUS(4:23pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)and many other teir 1 mb makers are not stable with DDR400 so how will they be able to make a stable dual channel DDR400 board?

Via and SiS, pulled DDR 400 support, I highy doubt the Nforce 2 chipset is that supior to Via's and SiS's offerings and most likey will tone it down to DDR333.

Remember AMD already rejected one Nforce 2 board even before production what if AMD reject all Nforce2 MoBos? - by Nataku

AMD to release 2800+ same day(4:31pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)A newstory on the inquirer says that AMD will launch the 2700+ and 2800+ on Oct. 1 as well! Both have 333 FSB's! - by Specter

Re: Big Fred(6:22pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)Only system integrators would use onboard graphics you say, but I disagree.What about those of us who don't care if we have the latest games because we don't play them anyway? What about those of us who want decent performance but don't want to blow the wad? What is the matter with wanting that little bit extra for onboard graphics, it would certainly be cheaper than buying an external card.So if your mother(assuming your mother, like most, doesn't really care about performance in the latest 3D games) asked you to build a computer cheap, you wouldn't consider building one using the onboard graphics? - by Sean

Specter(6:37pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)That I highly doubt, since AMD hasn't even shipped the 2400+ and 2600+ yet. Sure you can get both of those processors if you buy from some computer system company online, but I don't see them anywhere yet. - by Solid Snake

Sean(6:47pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)That's not my point. If I were building an inexpensive PC, I'd have no qualms using the Nforce's (or 845G's depending on the processor) graphics. The fact is, if you're going to build an inexpensive PC, you're probably not going to be using DDR400 memory. DDR266 would suffice for that. Hell, 2 sticks of 128MB DDR266 (and therefore dual channel) would cost the same (give or take) as a 256MB DDR400 stick, while offering about 1GB/s extra bandwidth! - by Big Fred

re: Solid Snake(10:35pm EST Wed Sep 25 2002)Theres actually a discussion goin on int the AMDzone forums for possible explanations. One thing I noticed is that Oct. 1 is also the same day that most of the 2400/2600's are expected. So is this gonna be a huge day for AMD processors or what? - by Specter

The Nvidia Nforce(2:56am EST Thu Sep 26 2002)Only has a geforce 4MX gcard, how crap is that, but the rest of the mb is ok, I will not buy a nf2 due to the onboard gcard that I'll never use! - by RAB

Althought i can understand poor guys using it I though nforce was for the gamer. I like the sis onboard lan on the 735 am using though. - by The Iceman

DDR 400/333 extra bandwith(6:22am EST Thu Sep 26 2002)Don't forget that there is an embeded graphic chip :-) the Extra bandwith that the athlon won't use will still bu used by the graphic Unit. It will help reduce slow down due to bandwith sharing. - by Sedrick

Seems the Inquirer.net has found some links to Epox's NForce2 boards(8:30am EST Thu Sep 26 2002)

So the boards can't be far off. - by NoM$KissAss

Re: Big Fred(3:05pm EST Thu Sep 26 2002)Understood, but I guess I would have to say that (this is an if only DDR400 is reasonable cost wise) there is good potential for an advantageous economical balance between cost and performance by using DDR400 and the IGP. - by Sean

onboard stuff(11:51am EST Mon Nov 04 2002)there is a version without the on board gfx, and sound storm audio kicks ass - by kieran

Get Real(6:37pm EST Sun Jan 12 2003)Ive just purchased a NF2 board, i was already using ddr400 b4 this purchase, not because i was overclocking my system, simply to future proof, the rest of my components are the same and yet unreal 2003 runs at 25!!!!!! frames a second faster. IT ROCKS. ENJOY. - by Wils